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Coastal engineers survey erosion from this past weekend’s storm on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich
SANDWICH – Coastal engineers were out on Town Neck Beach in Sandwich Monday to evaluate how much sand may have been lost from the re-nourishment project during the weekend storm.
Crews had just finished putting 120,000 cubic yards of sand on the eroded beach last week when the storm hit with fierce northeast winds Saturday.
A sharp drop-off from the newly built dune was visible along the entire stretch of the newly-placed sand, but officials said it could have been a lot worse if the new sand wasn’t in place.
Areas further west along the beach that were not protected by the new sand suffered more significant erosion.
The original plan called for dredged sand from the Cape Cod Canal to be used in front of private homes in addition to the public beach.
But several residents balked on giving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers easements for the work.
That promoted Sandwich officials to go forward with the project on just the public portion of the beach area. The work was done with state and local money, including funding from the Community Preservation Fund.
No structures were lost in the most recent storm, but everyone is keeping a close eye on the forecast with the potential for another ocean storm later in the week.
Sandwich is currently in the process of trying to acquire 300,000 more cubic yards of sand from Scusset Beach on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal to do additional beach nourishment.
Without the new barrier at Town Neck, officials had said more flooding was likely in the marsh behind the beach, which could eventually threaten sections of Route 6A in downtown Sandwich.
By MATT PITTA, CapeCod.com News Director
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